Glenn helps Rick reach the inside of a department store where other survivors are gathered. Rick has brought a lot of Walkers to the outside of the store though. He also handcuffs racist Merle who was beating up T-Dog. Rick comes up with a plan to reach a truck which could drive them out of the city.

Rick, Carl and Michonne get close to Terminus. Joe’s crew catch up with them and threaten to rape and slaughter. Darryl offers himself as sacrifice. Rick bites Joe’s throat out and kills their whole crew. Carl feels distant from his father as Michonne tries to reassure him. They approach Terminus with caution and sneak up on a bunch of people broadcasting and making maps. However Rick soon recognises his friends’ stuff and pulls out his gun. The four of them are ushered into a train car where they find Glenn’s group.

Carol and Tyreese capture one of the Terminus outer guards. Carol heads on into Terminus disguised as a Walker after blowing a hole in the gates. Inside Rick leads his people out as they mow down their captors. After an emotional reunion the gang move on. Morgan is following their path. In flashback we see how Terminus went from sanctuary to prison.

Jim was bitten and the survivors debate what to do with him. Rick wants to take him to the Centre for Disease Control and try to find a cure. Lori and Shane argue with him but he gets his way and they move out. Along the way Jim asks to be left behind. At the CDC only one scientist remains.

The show burst onto TV screens over Halloween in 2010. The strong pilot episode established a bleak world where civilization had found no way to combat the disease which was killing people and then turning them into walking corpses bent on biting those still living. Into this world stepped Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), a police sheriff who was determined to track down his family and restore some hope to a hopeless world.

The show was an instant success with over five million tuning in to the premier. For a Cable show that was a massive number. Fellow AMC shows Mad Men and Breaking Bad had regular audiences of about half that at the time.

Despite that success though the show is faced with several problems as it develops. Adapting a comic book into a weekly television show was always going to be an issue because the formats are so different. The show is also set in a deeply depressing context and it remains to be seen if audiences will stick around if no hope is to be found anywhere. Finally the show is set in the South, based around Georgia in its first two seasons. Yet AMC chose to cast many actors without convincing Southern accents including leading man Andrew Lincoln who is English.

November 2011

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